


The one where Thea gets a clue

by LittleRoma



Series: Infusion Diaries [21]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Protective Tommy Merlyn, Tommy starts to grow up, Tommy tries not to freak out, Violence but not really shown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-26
Updated: 2017-09-26
Packaged: 2019-01-05 20:18:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12196680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRoma/pseuds/LittleRoma
Summary: Bit of a sudden one, Thea finds out that she is a Slayer.  Tommy worries about the young woman that he watched grow up





	The one where Thea gets a clue

“I thought these guys were dead” Felicity grunted as she tried to make her way to Thea’s side.

 

“Not, yet, this one must have escaped after the Battle of Sunnydale!” Faith barked as she ducked from another punch.

 

“DID ANY MORE OF THESE FOUL CREATURES GET LOOSE AT THE SAME TIME?” Tommy roared as he dived the side avoiding a lunge.

 

“Normally, I would have said no, but UGH I hate being proven WRONG!” Faith grunted as she put all of her power behind an upper cross punch.

 

“USE YOUR STAKE, MERLYN CHECKED THAT THEA IS OKAY!” Felicity commanded the man as she tossed across a stake to Faith.

 

Tommy nodded, and after glancing distastefully at the Turok-Han fighting across from, he darted down some of the subway tunnels after his friend’s little sister.  He wondered whether he should run quietly, but he felt confident in assuming that was the only Turok-Han running around.  Carefully approaching the spot where he knew that young woman had decided to run and hide, Tommy reflected that after all of their caution and small arguments, it now looked like they wouldn’t be able to approach the woman carefully.  He knew that now Felicity (and Faith) would likely make a pithy comment about how you weren’t a Slayer unless you were thrown in at the deep end.  All he knew, right now he didn’t want to freak out the woman needlessly.

 

Goodness knew Tommy had read enough studies that stated that it was likely adrenaline added to your strength.

 

Thea hadn’t even been brought into the fold of understanding her destiny.  It would probably be a very Bad Idea to surprise the woman when her senses told her that she was living through a battle type situation.

 

This next part would probably be difficult; he would have to pray that she could think quickly about what he wanted to say to the woman next.  He didn’t want to let the cat out of the bag and inform Thea that her father wasn’t Robert Queen.  That her father might be the bloody bastard Malcolm Merlyn, who had fled and checked out all those years before.  At this stage, they weren’t even sure if Malcolm Merlyn had simply ignored his son, or if he had slid into a slow descent towards evil.  Tommy still wasn’t sure how he felt about those revelations, how could he support a ~~young girl~~ woman suddenly receiving all of that knowledge for the first time?

 

Curling his lips, as the dirty sewer water swirling around his hips from his over-large steps as he tried to compensate for wading through both human and animal faeces and some things he _KNEW_ he didn’t have the stomach (or even desire) to check out at further length.  A mud-encrusted bank, seriously what was down here, came out of the gloom, showing clear signs of recently having been disturbed.  That was more than likely where Thea had gone.

 

Just in case though he tightened his grip around the stake he held tightly clutched in his sweaty right hand.  Spotting the signs of scuffling in the mud was difficult, the tunnel was exceptionally gloomy.  He wondered if the gloomy conditions within the tunnel would slow down the Turok-Han, he thought it might.  Making another mental note to ring Giles after this night was over, and the group of them were back in safety.

 

Completing a slow scan of the surrounding ledge, at least as much as he could in the gloom, he spotted the huddled figure of Thea tucked near the corner.  Clearing his throat, he pulled the young woman’s attention to him, before he carefully covered the distance, telegraphing his every move as he did so.  There was honestly no need to freak out the woman any further than she undoubtedly already was.

 

When Tommy had made his way over to the woman, he glanced over at her, once again checking for injuries.  Satisfied that he could only see the cut on her temple, he couldn’t spot any broken bones, but he did know that Thea’s curling around herself could serve two purposes.  Either she was freaked out and wanted to make herself as small as possible so any nearby predators wouldn’t spot her as easily, or she was in pain and had brought the source of pain closer to her body as a way of protecting herself.

 

Tommy sighed, realising that he was going to have to cover a lot of ground in his explanation.  Sliding down the back of the grimy wall to the sewer to sit perched next to Thea, he gently pulled the woman to sit huddled against him.  Suppressing a grunt when Thea’s head rested on his abdomen, he had probably taken a bad bruise there; he should attempt to get that rested before Laurel asked him awkward questions.  He already knew he hadn’t covered up incredibly well beforehand; his girlfriend had probably thought he was part of some underground fight club.

 

The two of them had always had their troubles in their relationship.  Their troubles likely stemmed from Laurel perhaps subconsciously blaming Tommy for his role in his best friend taking her little sister out on an ill-fated yacht trip, and Tommy always feeling like he had the ghost of Ollie to live up to.  Their troubles had only become more exacerbated when Ollie had returned home.  It was probably time for the two of them to discuss their problems like the rational grown-ups that Felicity assured Tommy he was.

 

Shaking his head to come back to the present, he tossed his stake to sitting beside his thigh, before he wrapped his arms around the woman.  Feeling Thea shudder in his arms, Tommy realised that he could feel a growing wet spot on his jumper.  He realised that the woman was likely crying.  Biting back a curse as he realised that he hadn’t brought any tissues with him, he settled to murmuring in Thea’s hair

 

“That’s it, let it all out, that’s it”

 

Tommy was suddenly struck with a sudden self-hatred for himself and fear for the woman in his arms.  Allowing one of his hands to soothingly run his hands over the woman’s hair, he winced as he realised that the woman’s hair was in need of some good TLC.

 

Never let it be said that Tommy disregarded _ALL_ of the things he had learned through being a shameless playboy for so many years.

 

Reaching into the pocket of his jacket, he carefully extracted a hair bobble from his jacket.  He may not be incredibly good at it, but he was able to tie up the woman’s hair, it might not be the neatest in the world, but at least it wasn’t going to get in Thea’s face.

 

He had bugged Raisa, the Queen’s Russian housekeeper to show him how to tie up the girl’s hair when her mother checked out.  Not all of the lessons stayed with him, but he could never get out of the way of making sure he always had a spare hair tie on his person, and a small packet of tissues.

 

Feeling his muscles tense up again, when he heard the sound of splashing of murky water swirling in the sewer.  Had Faith and Felicity not managed to dispatch of the Turok-Han?  Was it hunting them down even as he thought? 

 

“Okay, Thea, you don’t have to speak right now, but we need to move further into the shadows, I don’t want to be surprised by anything okay?  I’ll explain what’s going on after we get out of this mess, I promise, but for now, I need you to be quiet alright?” Tommy whispered to the young woman in his arms, even as he gently pulled the young woman back into the shadows.  Grabbing at the stake again and silently saying a prayer to all of the things that he wasn’t sure he could believe in anymore.

 

Peering at the woman, Tommy pressed a finger to his lips, as he silently pled for silence from the woman.  He watched the small entrance, to the part of the sewer that he had just come from.  As he watched the water, he could feel his heart hammering in his chest, looking for release from the terrifying nightmare he had found himself captured in.

 

After a few more heart-stoppingly terrifying moments, he watched as the blonde and brunette head of both Felicity and Faith came wading towards him.  Through the gloom, he thought he could see Faith shaking her hands out.  He was mildly relieved when he couldn’t see any obvious injuries on the woman, though he did know that the gloom could be hiding a lot of injuries.  Letting a small whistle escape his lips, he called the women’s attention to him.

 

Felicity quickened her steps, as she waded towards him and began a whispered conversation with the man.

 

“Is it handled?  Is the Turok-Han dead?” Tommy hissed asking the questions that he needed answered, the questions that he almost feared the answers to.

 

“Yes, he’s gone, but Faith and I don’t think he was alone, can we get you guys out of here, before we are ambushed with yet more of those things?” Felicity reported in a plaintive whisper, wanting to get the hell out of dodge before things could get much worse.

 

“Very well, but I don’t think Thea can walk unaided at the moment.  If I support her, can you and Faith protect us?  I won’t be much good in a fight if I am helping someone to stand.”

 

Felicity thought her response before quickly nodding at the man.  Tommy took the chance to dart over towards Thea, with whom he also had a quick whispered conversation.

 

“Thea, we need to get out of here, lean on me to get out and Faith and Felicity will protect us, just nod if you understand.” Tommy tried to whisper soothingly at the woman.

 

“Tommy, I don’t think I can walk at all, can you, can you, carry me?” Thea haltingly asked the man.

 

Tommy looked at the woman and took an internal stock of his injuries; he nodded once he was satisfied that he could reasonably carry Thea without further exacerbating his collection of injuries.  Deciding quickly that he didn’t want to carry Thea in a fireman’s lift, at least not if he didn’t want Thea to drown with a disgusting collection of shit and what could only be described as piss.

 

Making their way through the sewers could only be described by Tommy looking back as being one of a more terrifying moments of his life, so far.  He constantly felt like he was being watched, but he felt that he couldn’t do anything about it, simply continuing to make his way through the sewers.  Only the knowledge of a circling Felicity and Faith kept the fear at bay long enough to stop him from jumping out of his skin.

 

Emerging into the moonlight again, felt like it should be one of the happiest moments of Tommy’s life so far.  It wasn’t because he was constantly aware of every snap of every twig in the foliage.  Well aware that the wrong move here could be his last, whether or not he wanted it to be.   He did feel the sense of relief begin to cautiously begin to take life, like a balloon in his chest when the sight of their van swam up before him in the gloom.

 

He never thought he would ever be so glad that they had taken a black van when they were going chasing after a freaked out Thea and a Turok-Han.  The smell, he realised would be nigh on impossible to get out of the upholstery in Felicity’s Mini Cooper.  He wasn’t even sure, how much it would cost, he was just very aware that it would be expensive.  It would also be awkward trying to explain why he was leaving in a car that smelled as if it had taken a trip in the sewers!

 

He glanced over at Felicity, and the two of them had a silent conversation together, trying to decide who was going to drive the van and who would slide into the back with Thea.  It was decided when Felicity stuck out her jaw and gave the man a hard look, which they would be better served with Tommy sliding into the back, where he could keep an eye on Thea, even if he could see that the woman was beginning to rally.  Following Felicity’s quick glance over at Faith, it was decided that the woman would sit in the front alongside Felicity.  It would probably, he reflected, be easier if Faith were to drive, but Faith didn’t exactly know the roads in Starling, and in any case, they probably wouldn’t be better served if a random black van was spotted circling Starling.  They would probably look like thieves and Tommy didn’t have the energy left in him to convince any cops that stopped them, that they weren’t burglars.

 

Their shared decisions on who was going to drive, the quartet climbed into the car.  Worryingly, Tommy had had to pull in Thea, who he was alarmed to note was already beginning to look slightly glassy-eyed.  Tommy was familiar with the effects of adrenaline and attempting to explain away something that you knew had no basis in logic or reality to feel comfortable guessing what was going on in the woman’s head.  He knew that Thea was attempting to rationalise what she had just seen, even though he knew from personal experience how difficult it could be to refute something you had just seen.  Tommy knew because he had previously attempted to do the very same thing, he also knew that for some things there wasn’t any way to tie a neat bow around the subject and dismiss it as the ramblings of a _terrified_ mind.  He had gone through some of the same things when he had previously been rescued by Felicity all those years ago; he had thought they were the kinds of things his mind when high and stoned and soused on alcohol could conjure.  Thankfully, once he had begun to begin to understand that he hadn’t imagined it all, he had sought Felicity out, and she had attempted to explain some of the things to him.

 

He had also sought out a patient Giles, who had bluntly destroyed what Tommy had previously believed to be true.  Thankfully, Giles had taken a sorry Tommy onboard and allowed him to train to become a Watcher, something that Tommy knew he would forever be grateful for.  He wondered what would have happened if Giles had told him to get lost and used the expertise of Willow to make him forget all he had seen.

 

Ugh, he still felt like a raw nerve ready to either explode into action by either striking the Red Witch down or attempting to hide when he saw the woman.  He didn’t even know that mind control was a thing, a real thing that happened before, but he knew that he was morally opposed to such a thing.  To him, making someone see things and believe things in the privacy of their mind was morally repugnant.  After all, he rationalised that there had to be some limits to how far a person could go and he wasn’t personally interested in exploring how far someone could be pushed before snapping.

 

Call it a dangerous character flaw if you will.

 

Checking over the woman’s injuries as much as he could in the rapidly dwindling light, it was troubling that he couldn’t spot exactly what was wrong.  While he was doing so, he also kept half an ear on the muttered conversation in the front of the van; he could hear Felicity cursing as she attempted to maintain a normal looking driving pace.  Faith was chiding the woman to speed up.  He should, he reflected, probably be a little worried that Faith was ready to throw the rules and laws out the window, but right now he was too concerned with the quartet getting home safe.

 

Eventually after what seemed like the ride of stress was beginning to build up, Felicity pulled into a darker seeming room.  Tommy sighed when he realised that this meant that they were finally safe.  He also knew that he should probably be worried by how easy it was for him to lose his situational awareness.  He should probably work on that some more.

 

Pulling Thea into his arms, Tommy hopped from the van into the dark of Felicity’s preternaturally tidy garage.  Pausing, as shifted his weight from one foot to another, while he waited for Felicity and Faith to lock the van and unlock the door that led directly from the garage to the house.  It seemed as if the women were moving slowly, although that could also be because Thea was carrying human dead weight in his arms.  When Felicity opened the door, Tommy made his way into the living room, with Felicity following him and switching on the lights.

 

Having safely deposited the woman in a large, comfy armchair, one that he could remember as being supremely comfy for him to sink into, he took a step back and stepped towards Faith and Felicity.

 

“Alright ladies, what the hell happened back there, I thought the Turok-Han had all been dealt with at the Battle of Sunnydale?” Tommy demanded, his question seemed like the most important and troubling thing in the world to him.

 

“I did too, I know we didn’t get long enough to hang out Liss simply, but I’m going to need to report this to Giles and Xander, are you okay with me leaving?” Faith sighed, running a hand through her long brunette hair, turning to Felicity to ask her the question.

 

“Yeah, that’s fine, Tommy and I are going to have to explain to Thea here what that was back there.  And where she fits into it” Felicity nodded before gasping “if you are calling back Willow, call her to some other room, I don’t want anyone else knowing about Thea until Thea is ready.”

 

“Fair enough, what do you want me to say to Giles if he asks, because you know he will?” Faith warned her left eyebrow inching up her face.

 

“Let me handle him, but for now you don’t say anything to anyone about Thea.  The Turok-Han are fine; we need to raise the alarm about them.  But not about Thea, is that understood?” Tommy warned thinking of some of the trials that were in Thea’s future.

 

Faith nodded her understanding, before swiftly exiting the room.  Tommy peered after the woman, as she made her way from the room.  He looked over at Felicity, the two of them trying to decide how they were going to handle this next bit.  Felicity moved her hands in a peace gesture before disappearing up the stairs, with a pantomimed shudder showing Tommy her intentions.

 

Sighing as he watched the woman exit the room, presumably to take a shower, Tommy looked back at the huddled form of Thea on the armchair.  Shaking his head briefly before he stepped forward calling Thea’s attention to him.  Watching as the young woman, he had watched grow up, carefully assessing him, one of the traits she had no doubt picked up from Moira.

 

“Thea, sweetie, I’m so sorry to get you involved in this mess, but it seems as if no matter how hard you try to fight this, it will find you.  Do you know anything about what goes bump in the night?  Have you ever found yourself being capable of things that you weren’t even sure were possible?  Have you ever found things about yourself as being difficult to explain?” Tommy asked trying not to press the young woman in front of him.

 

Thea falteringly nodded her head, before gesturing with an impatient hand motion that Tommy should just get it on with.

 

“I know that this all seems hard to believe, but I wouldn’t lie to you, not about anything, you have to trust me okay?  I never wanted to have this conversation with you, perhaps because I knew you growing up.  I can still remember you playing with Barbie Dolls; you need to promise me that you will listen to me, okay?  For Milena, since life began on Earth, there have been creatures, of darkness and night hunting humankind.  At the same time, there have been groups operating from the shadows attempting to protect and stem the evil being committed by these creatures.  The groups have rallied behind a girl to save them.  There’s a quote ‘ _In every generation, there is a chosen one.  She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness.  She is the Slayer’_ thankfully it isn’t as lonely anymore, there are teams of people around you that can help you fight, there are other Slayers in the world.”

 

“Faith who helped me and Felicity save you was one of the ones called earlier, but Felicity who works in your parent's company is one of the Slayers called in at what was known as the Battle Of Sunnydale.  Do you remember hearing something in the news about ten years ago about a whole town in southern California being engulfed by a massive sinkhole that scientists were at a loss to explain?  It was then that Felicity was called.  She, along with a lot of young women and girls the world over, have since been battling for purchase against a whole host of supernatural creatures.  It seems that you along with them, have those powers.”

 

“While I know that these powers will probably seem to you as if they are good for nothing other than trouble, I promise you that they aren’t.  There may be hundreds if not thousands of Slayers alive and operating against the foul creatures that desire nothing more than to take over the world and subjugate and enslaved if not outright kill humanity, but it’s a fight that is always waged.  It can never stop, because what would happen if it did stop?  I do not know, but I swear to you Thea, it would be bad and I promise you that as long as there is breath in my lungs and a song in my heart you won’t ever have to see such a thing come to pass.”

 

“For now, you’ll need to practise staying safe; you’ll need to learn how to keep yourself safe because I can promise you, some of the things that I’m warning you about, would not miss the opportunity to hurt you.  Felicity is willing to help me with that, to train you up to the point where you can make any further decisions based on what _you_ want, not what anyone else is trying to pressure you into doing.” Tommy finished his explanation, looking over at Thea in worry.

 

He wasn’t ashamed to admit that at this point, he was near to tears, he felt so frightened for how the young woman in front of him, for how her life could play out.  He was so determined that she should never be entered into a Slayer type Showdown.  There had been solid reports coming back that Demons and their ilk had attempted to kidnap Slayers and entered them into vicious fights to the death against Demons and Vampires.  At the very least he knew that he was going to work very hard to make sure that Thea at least had the tools to survive. 

 

It was up to her, whether or not she took those tools and worked on them and honed them to the point where Tommy no longer felt his heart beating in his throat when he thought of Thea in trouble.

 

Using one of his thumbs to gently wipe away one of the tears that had begun to pool in Thea’s eyes.  He could feel his nerves going through the roof as the seconds ticked by and still Thea said nothing.

 

“Thea, can you tell me how you feel about any of this?” Tommy prompted, for once he could tell what was going through the young woman’s head.

 

Painfully slowly, Thea’s head lifted from their cradle in her arms, and she looked at Tommy.  Though to say looked was a bit of a misnomer, to Tommy it felt like his soul was pierced through with the force of Thea’s gaze.  He felt as if she was looking right through him to gaze at his soul.  Tommy only hoped that he wasn’t found wanting.

 

“I can’t even speak right now” Thea spoke quietly as she clambered from her position on the couch to disappear through the doorway.

 

Tommy watched her go with an uneasy sensation pooling low in his belly.  He only hoped that Thea would talk to him.  Or even to Felicity, at this point, he wasn’t picky, he just wanted to know that the young woman he thought of as a sister, was going to be okay.


End file.
